This interesting and a wee bit funny in that 'ain't life a bitch' way - thievery is prevalent in China - from corporate piracy all the way down to your average street hustler - there's a culture of stealing and the Chinese actually have a word for it that I've read but in no way can remember - but it's a recognized existential reality of 'the Chinese way' and those who write about China's inevitable rise as an economic power often cite this cultural attribute as a potential loose rung waiting to upend this inevitable climb to the top - certainly Western business interests, eager to reap a China windfall, are increasingly aware of and troubled by this Middle Kingdom tendency to greet you with one hand while stealing your wallet with the other - the WSJ just ran a fascinating article on how Russian military trade is in serious decline because the Chinese have taken advanced Russian military tech they've purchased over the years, reverse engineered it, and are now selling it as 'original' Chinese hardware at greatly reduced prices. Not surprisingly I guess, intellectual property rights are not much valued in the land that Mao built [but still a bit amusing that the former Marxists are being screwed this way by the not so former Maoists].
All disturbing enough if one counts themselves a China sceptic - which I do - but here's where it gets a bit funny: 70% of all software, including operating systems, in use in China, whether by private individuals or government employees, is pirated and China's officialdom has either openly or by their silence condoned this illegal activity - but now the potentates of erstwhile Peiking have decided that's a bad thing - not because they've had an epiphany that maybe it's good policy to frown upon the stealing of the copyrighted and patent protected products of others - that they don't seem to give a fuck about [no doubt thinking it justifiable payback for years of colonial abuse - but that's comparing apples to oranges when comsidering long term implications of each culture's approach to banditry - think, paradoxically, 'rule of law' and 'rights of the individual' before that law] - but rather because pirated software is highly vulnerable to being compromised by viruses etc. In the age of Stuxnet [Iran used pirated software and hardware in nuclear components Stuxnet targeted] and WikiLeaks this gapping vulnerability has got the boys in Beijing just a little bit on edge - and so they've started up a campaign to try and pry all this pirated digital booty away from the parsimonious purloiners - good luck with that - as one analyst said it would be like trying to turn America into a country of commie loving atheists - ain't gonna happen.
Still, all joking aside, the consequences of this cultural clash, which points to a fundamental divide between the US and China concerning perceptions of how a modern society, that seeks to wield great power, should and needs to function, could prove quite problematic.
